Hostages 'unconditionally' forgive captors

Freed Iraq hostage Norman Kember and two other men held with him today announced that they "unconditionally" forgave their captors and wished them no "retribution".

The peace campaigner, along with his two colleagues and fellow hostages James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden, also said they wanted "all possible leniency" shown to the men accused of the crime if they are convicted.

But the three peace campaigners, holding the press conference in London, have still to decide if they will give evidence at the men's trial, set for next year in Iraq's Central Criminal Court.

The joint statement comes after police approached Mr Kember and the other two men and asked if they would give evidence in the court case.

In the statement, the campaigners said: "We unconditionally forgive our captors for abducting and holding us. We have no desire to punish them. Punishment can never restore what was taken from us.

"What our captors did was wrong. They caused us, our families and our friends great suffering.

"Yet we bear no malice towards them and have no wish for retribution.

"Should those who have been charged with holding us hostage be brought to trial and convicted, we ask that they be granted all possible leniency. We categorically lay aside any rights we may have over them."

As kidnapping is a capital offence in Iraq, it is understood the alleged captors could face the death penalty.

It is thought the three campaigners are only likely to give evidence at the trial if they can achieve clemency for the men.

Mr Loney said: "We do not have enough information at this stage to make a decision as to whether we are going to testify or not."

Today is the first time the three men have met up since they were released in March and the meeting has been arranged exactly a year after the captors threatened to kill the hostages unless their demands were met.

Retired Mr Kember was seized during a peace mission to Baghdad, Iraq, on November 26 last year and held for 118 days.

The peace activist was freed on March 23 in a multi-national military operation involving the SAS and other forces.

Mr Kember, 74, from Pinner, north west London, had been visiting the country with Christian Peacemaker Teams, a Canada-based international peace group, and taken hostage with three fellow peace campaigners.

The other men were Canadians Mr Loney and Mr Sooden, and an American, Tom Fox.

Mr Fox was found shot dead in Baghdad in March in the affluent Mansour district.

During today's meeting at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation in London, Mr Kember and his colleagues said they were "immensely sad" that Mr Fox was not with them.

They added: "It was on this day a year ago that our captors threatened to execute us unless their demands were met.

"This ultimatum, unknown to us at the time, was a source of extreme distress for our families, friends and colleagues.

"We understand a number of men alleged to be our captors have been apprehended, charged with kidnapping, and are facing trial in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq.

"We have been asked by the police in our respective countries to testify in the trial.

"After much reflection upon our traditions, both Sikh and Christian, we are issuing this statement today."

They said the "catastrophic" violence in Iraq was " inextricably linked" to the US-led invasion and occupation.

"As for many others, the actions of our kidnappers were part of a cycle of violence they themselves experienced.

"While this is no way justifies what the men charged with our kidnapping are alleged to have done, we feel this must be considered in any potential judgment," they said.

The statement added that the campaigners "categorically" opposed the death penalty.

They said: "Kidnapping is a capital offence in Iraq and we understand that some of our captors could be sentenced to death.

"The death penalty is an irrevocable judgment. It erases all possibility that those who have harmed others, even seriously, can yet turn to good. We oppose the death penalty."

Mr Kember said the only way he would testify would be to plead for mercy.

He told the press conference: "If it was necessary to take part in a trial to plead for clemency and that was the only way we could come to it, then we would take part, but that would be the only reason to take part."

Neither he or his fellow hostages have seen photographs gathered as evidence against their captors although they know they exist.

Police had offered them a photograph identity parade.

But Mr Kember claimed there is plenty of forensic evidence.

He said: "There is other evidence. There was a fair amount of forensic evidence in the house when we left.

"When I got to the US hospital they stripped me of all my clothes and said that you could get fingerprints off clothes."

Asked if he had been naive to go into the heart of a war zone, Mr Kember replied: "Yes we were naive if Jesus was naive, if Martin Luther King was naive, if Gandhi was naive."

The former hostages said their murdered colleague, Mr Fox, was not far from their thoughts but they could not speak for his family as to whether they agreed with their position against giving evidence.

Suggesting that Mr Fox would have approved, Mr Loney said: "Tom was very clear about his opposition to the death penalty.

"He signed a statement saying that if he was to be murdered that he would not want his murder to be revenged with the death penalty."

Mr Kember praised him as "the most compassionate of the four of us".

He said: "From time to time we would hear explosions, obviously a bomb had been let off in Baghdad. Tom would immediately pray for both the victims and the perpetrator."

The captors stressed their hope that one day some good will come from their ordeal.

In the statement they said: "By this commitment to forgiveness we hope to plant a seed that one day will bear the fruit of healing and reconciliation for us, our captors, the people of Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and, most of all, Iraq.

"We look forward to the day when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is respected by all the world's people."

The declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 as a way to try and speak out for those whose human dignity is being violated by torture, arbitrary imprisonment, poverty, racism, oppression or war.